Tim Benz: If Kyle Dubas keeps talking about the 'standard' for the Penguins, Mike Tomlin may start asking questions

During his season-opening press conference, Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas spoke openly about spending much of his first 16 months on the job learning about the city of Pittsburgh and his team’s fanbase.

“After being here for a year, there are people who have lived here for their whole lives. (They) might have a much deeper feeling of what it means to be from Pittsburgh or representing Pittsburgh. But to me, with regards to the Penguins, it means a team that’s built on grit and innovation in equal parts,” Dubas said.

Perhaps through the osmosis of being immersed in this city’s sports ecosystem, Dubas also regurgitated what has become an all too familiar word associated with living up to the level of championship expectations in the region: “standards.”

In fact he used that word five times in the span of 36 seconds during his opening statement Monday.

“We’ve had a lot of discussion internally throughout the offseason and early this season about standards,” Dubas said. “It’s very clear to me that our players, especially the players that have been here and have won championships here, have very high standards in terms of what they expect from others and what they expect in the building. I view it as my duty to preserve those standards — and that standard — that we set, and to also push the group to lift that standard. I don’t take that lightly.”

I think Dubas has the makings of a great slogan there. Maybe something along the lines of, “The standard is the stan….”

Uh, oh. Hmmm. Given the perennial state of Pittsburgh Steelers’ mediocrity we’ve witnessed the last eight years, that motto might hit a little too close to home in the wrong way for Dubas and the Pens.

Indeed, the Tomlin-ism credo of “The standard is the standard” has dissolved over the years. It was once a franchise rallying cry for the Steelers through the early 2010’s. Now it’s little more than an ironic punchline within the fanbase in the 2020s.

After all, when Tomlin coined that phrase back when his group was winning division crowns and conference titles and going to Super Bowls, “ The standard is the standard ” was a beautifully simplistic way to sum up the organization’s long-held goal of perpetual championship contention.

Now, “ The standard is the standard ” at Acrisure Stadium has a meaning that resonates more along the lines of “ Consistently average is the norm .”

Unfortunately, “ Consistently average is the norm ” isn’t catchy enough to sell a lot of T-shirts in the Strip District. That’s what happens when you manage nine or 10 wins every year, but no playoff victories since 2016.

Unfortunately for the Penguins, they’ve also recently stumbled into that same vortex of being just good enough to be relevant, but never good enough to really contend. The team has failed to win a playoff round since 2018 and has missed the playoffs each of the last two years.

That’s not “the standard” most people are used to seeing from a franchise that has won five Stanley Cups since 1990. Despite maintaining some Hall of Fame talent from those last three Cup years, the Pens are projected to be nothing more than a fringe Eastern Conference playoff contender again in 2024-25.

• Won't change tactics? Won't play the kids? Penguins coach Mike Sullivan pushes back at critics' 'narratives'

• Penguins president Kyle Dubas wants to 'change the story'

• Mark Madden: Penguins might sneak into the playoffs, but don't expect much more

“Regardless of what the external expectation is, I think the opportunity is going to be afforded to a lot of players and a lot of people in our building — combined with those standards that are set in the environment that’s set that I’ve talked about — that will allow us the chance to to have an exciting and fun year,” Dubas said.

Oops! There you go again, Kyle. Careful. You might be flirting with copyright infringement at this point. What’s next? Is Mike Sullivan going to start talking about “painting the red barn red?”

Pending crosstown intellectual property theft allegations aside, the messaging from Dubas is a purposeful one — just as it has been from Tomlin.

Eventually, though, the message has to reflect the meaning. Otherwise, the credo just becomes a cliche.

The Steelers got to that point a long time ago. The Penguins are now swimming in those same waters.

It’d be great if both clubs actually returned to the old standards that they keep referencing very soon.